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MAID MARIAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 428 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAID MARIAN , a personage incorporated in the See also:

English See also:legend of See also:Robin See also:Hood. There is no See also:evidence that she had originally any connexion with the Robin Hood See also:cycle. She seems to have been an essential feature of the See also:morris See also:dance, and in the may-See also:game was paired sometimes with Robin-Hood, but oftener with See also:Friar Tuck. The well-known See also:pastoral See also:play of See also:Adam de la See also:Hale, Jeu de Robin et See also:Marion, and the many See also:French songs on the subject, See also:account for the association of the names. In the See also:ballads on Robin Hood her name is twice casually mentioned, but there is a See also:late ballad, by a certain S. G. (F. J. See also:Child, English and Scottish Ballads, i. 219), which tells how Maid Marian sought Robin in the See also:forest disguised as a See also:page, and fought with him for an See also:hour before she recognized him by his See also:voice. S. G. was perhaps acquainted with the two plays, written in 1598, of The Downfall and The See also:Death of See also:Robert See also:Earl of See also:Huntingdon, by See also:Anthony See also:Munday and Harry See also:Chettle.

In The Downfall See also:

Matilda Fitz See also:Walter escapes from the persecution of See also:King See also:John by following her See also:lover to See also:Sherwood Forest, where they took the names of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and lived apart until they could be legally See also:united. Perhaps this See also:tale has some connexion with the See also:romance of the outlaw See also:Fulk Fitz Warin. Matilda or Mahaud, widow of See also:Theobald Walter, escaped from John's solicitations by marrying the outlawed Fulk and following him to the forest. There were in semi-See also:historical legends three Matildas pursued by King John, of whom particulars are given by H. L. D. See also:Ward in his See also:Catalogue of Romances (i. 502). Their several histories were fused by the Elizabethan dramatists, and associated with the Maid Marian of the morris dance, who up to that See also:time had probably only a vague connexion with Robin Hood.

End of Article: MAID MARIAN

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